NBA fans would like to know why LeBron didn’t enter the Slam Dunk Contest (like he said he would at last year’s contest), but he spent the Saturday before the All-Star Game doing some charity work for the Boys & Girls Club in Los Angeles before co-hosting a “TWO KINGS” dinner with Jay-Z at Craft Restaurant. Here are a few pics from the day’s events:
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Here are the Top 10 highlights from the West’s 148-143 win in Sunday’s All-Star Game. Kobe won the MVP while LeBron had a triple-double for only the second time in the history of the game. (Michael Jordan did it first.)
Not sure why they’d waste two spots on the pregame and halftime entertainment when they don’t even play the audio, but whatever. The other eight highlights were good.
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Rookie team’s John Wall of the Washington Wizards holds up the MVP trophy after the Rookie team beat the Sophomores during the Rookie Challenge as part of NBA All-Star weekend in Los Angeles, California, February 18, 2011. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson (UNITED STATES – Tags: SPORT BASKETBALL)
Wall racked up a record 22 assists to win the MVP award, Sacramento’s DeMarcus Cousins had 33 points and 14 rebounds, and the rookies rallied to beat the sophomores 148-140 at the NBA’s All-Star weekend Friday night.
Blake Griffin scored 14 points for the rookies in front of the high-flying Clippers forward’s ecstatic home crowd, sticking to his commitment to play in the game even after making the West team for Sunday’s All-Star game.
It should be noted that the Sophs were at something of a disadvantage since they lost Griffin, 2009’s #1 pick, to a season-ending knee injury last season, so now he’s considered a rookie.
There was virtually no defense being played, as the Rookies shot 64% from the field while the Sophs shot almost 55%. James Harden led the Sophs with 30 points while DeJuan Blair chipped in with 28 points and 15 rebounds. Just four of the game’s 18 players failed to score in double digits (Taj Gibson, Brandon Jennings, Derrick Favors and Eric Bledsoe).
Check out this crazy alley-oop from Wall to Griffin:
Blake Griffin of the Los Angeles Clippers (R) prepares to shoot as Kevin Love (L) of the Minnesota Timberwolves defends in first half action at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California USA 19 January 2011. EPA/MIKE NELSON CORBIS OUT fotoglif919014
Since the All-Star reserves will be announced tonight on TNT, I thought I’d try to come up with some sort of formula to calculate who should make the All-Star Game.
What’s important in an All-Star? Well, to me, it comes down to two things: stats and wins. So I took my favorite (and flawed) all-encompassing stat, efficiency, and calculated it on a per-game basis for each player. Then, I multiplied each player’s efficiency with his teams win percentage to come up with a new stat: Win Efficiency. (Please note that rebounds are easier to come by than assists, so big men tend to do better in overall efficiency than guards do.)
From there, picking the All-Stars would be simple. Take out the five starters for each conference, and fill out the roster with three guards, three forwards and a center. Surprisingly, the results came out pretty well. (By the way, I put an arbitrary minimum of 35 games played.)
Here’s a look at the top 20 players from the Eastern Conference: